1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to telecommunications and, more particularly, to enabling telecommunications service subscribers to designate billing options on a per-call basis for both outgoing and incoming calls over a variety of wireline and wireless media. A service subscriber may establish a plurality of service accounts and designate to which of these accounts the charge for a particular call is to be billed.
2. Discussion of Related Art
FIG. 1 is a greatly simplified illustration of a communications network called a Personal Communications System (PCS) network 100. The PCS is similar to other types of communications networks and is described to provide background to the following discussion of the invention; it is not intended to limit the invention to use with only PCS systems. Indeed, a person skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the invention may be used in many types of communications systems. The PCS 100 includes a signaling network 102, which supports a switched communications network. A switched communications network may be, for example, a public switched telephone network (PSTN) or an Integrated Signaling Digital Network (ISDN). The signaling network 102 is connected to a wireless communications system 104. A PCS subscriber may send and receive voice messages, e-mail, faxes and other types of communication. Also, a PCS subscriber may link several telephone numbers (or addresses) to the same PCS account. For example, the subscriber's PCS account may include a home telephone number, a wireless telephone number, an office telephone number, and a pager number.
An illustrative signaling network 102 includes (among other things) a network 30 database 105, which may be a service control point (SCP). A database called a Home Location Register (HLR) 106 is part of the signaling network. The network may also include a network server 107, such as a Bellcore proprietary Intelligent Services Peripheral (ISP). The HLR 106 is connected via a link 108 to a Regional Signaling Transfer Point (RSTP) 110. The RSTP 110 is connected via a number of links 112 to several Local Signaling Transfer Points (LSTPs) 114. Each LSTP 114 is connected via a number of local links 116 to a number of central office switches such as Service Switching Points (SSP) 118. The SSP 118 connects to a customer premises to provide for premises equipment, such as a wireline telephone 120. An SSP 118 may also connect to one or more Wireless Switching Centers (WSC), Mobile Switching Centers (MSC), or Radio Port Control Units (RPCU) 122, which are part of the wireless communications system 104. The WSC (or MSC or RPCU) 122 is connected to a number of Base Stations (BS) (or Radio Ports (RP)) 124, which monitor a "cell" (or "coverage area") 126. One or more WSC 122 are connected to a second database called the Visiting Location Register (VLR) 128.
The HLR 106 contains a database maintained by a subscriber's local communications service provider at the subscriber's home location. This database, which may include information about the subscriber, is called the subscriber's user profile. The VLR 128 is maintained by a communications service provider at the location the subscriber and calling device 130 are visiting. The calling device (or handset) 130 may be a wireless telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA) having wireless communication applications, or other device. The VLR 128 stores a subset of the HLR 106 subscriber information, and records that the calling device 130 is currently located in the area serviced by that VLR. The HLR 106 keeps a record of the VLR in which the calling device is currently located. When the calling device 130 travels to an area covered by a different WSC 122, the device is registered in the new WSC 122. The new location is stored in the VLR 128. If the calling device 130 travels to an area covered by another VLR 128, the subset of the HLR 106 data stored in the previous VLR is transferred to the new VLR. The location of the new VLR is stored in the HLR and the previous VLR location is deleted from the HLR 106.
Wireless communications services are provided by wireless communications service providers, which may or may not also be local telephone service providers. Some wireless services, such as PCS service, do not use geographic telephone numbers. A geographic telephone number typically includes an area code and a three digit number called the exchange. The area code and exchange provide information about the location and signaling network database of the telephone (or other communications device). Telephone numbers not having this information are called non-geographic telephone numbers or NGPN and do not contain the information identifying the subscriber's signaling network database, which contains, for example, the service provider's HLR containing the subscriber's user profile. They also do not contain the information identifying the service provider serving that subscriber, from which the identity of the signaling network database may be obtained. Non-geographic telephone numbers are described in more detail in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/592,212 filed on Jan. 26, 1996, entitled "Method and Apparatus Supporting Non-Geographic Telephone Numbers." Moreover, as described above, a PCS account may include a number of telephone numbers (or addresses), such as office and home wireless telephone number, a non-geographic wireless telephone number, and a pager number.
Billing for conventional/wireless telephone services is currently provided on an item-per- communications-line basis. In other words, the bill is primarily associated with the physical access line to the telephone network, and not to the telephone instrument or the caller. Some wireless communications services may provide a small degree of billing preference selection. Calling card services, for example, enable callers to use a calling card to bill a call to a specific account, but involve lengthy dialing codes and personal identification numbers (PINS) for security. Moreover, a caller could not, for example, use the same calling card for personal and business calls and have the usage charges separated.
Some interexchange carriers enable users to select among service accounts by dialing an access code (up to 4 additional DTMF digits) after the called party's number has been dialed. This access code can be used to itemize the monthly bill for the caller's physical access line according to the access codes. This method does not provide for a subscriber selecting billing preferences using more than one number or access line. This may be desireable, however, because a PCS subscriber may have several numbers (or addresses) in a single account.
Moreover, neither of the above billing preference selection methods provides for billing preferences for incoming calls (for example, toll free number service subscribers or wireless communications subscribers that are billed for air time of incoming calls). Some interexchange carriers itemize toll free number customer monthly bills by calling number, area-code of calling number, time-of-day, etc., of an incoming call, but do not allow users to specify service accounts on a per-call basis. Default billing account designations for specified numbers are currently not available as a service to recipients of calls.
Personal Communications Services (PCS) subscribers originate calls from different access lines (home or office phone or fax, or wireless telephone). Moreover, wireless calls may originate from different locations as they move from place to place within a PCS service area. The subscriber may desire the ability to designate different billing accounts on a per-call basis. Thus, it is preferable for calls originated from one or more access lines and for different purposes (personal, business, business relating to a particular client or matter, etc) to be itemized separately on the subscriber's bill. Because wireless communications subscribers are billed for airtime for incoming calls, it is also preferable for calls received from different numbers to also be itemized on a caller's bill. As used herein, the term "calls" may refer to voice, paging, e-mail, fax, multimedia or other communications via the communications network. Also, it may be desirable for a service subscriber to maintain records of time spent on telephone conversations. An attorney, for example, may want to keep track of time spent talking about a particular matter, regardless of whether the call originated from the subscriber or elsewhere.
A problem to be solved in providing such a service to PCS users is that a subscriber may use different wireline or wireless access lines to originate or receive calls and may have a non-geographic telephone number, i.e., one which is not tied to a specific access line. A second problem to be solved is that subscribers who are to be billed for received calls (e.g., users with toll-free numbers or wireless devices) may wish to designate billing accounts for incoming calls on a per-call basis. A third problem to be solved is that subscribers may wish to keep a record of time spent discussing a particular matter. A fourth problem to be solved is that subscribers may wish to designate default billing preference designators for particular numbers (such as frequently dialed number or numbers frequently calling the subscriber) or in the event that no billing preference designator is selected.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to enable communications network service subscribers to designate network usage allocation options on a per-call basis.
It is another object of the present invention to enable communications network service subscribers billed for incoming calls to designate billing options on a per-call basis.
It is yet another object of the present invention to enable communications network service subscribers having non-geographic telephone numbers to designate network usage allocation options on a per-call basis.
It is a further object of the present invention to enable communications network service subscribers to designate network usage allocation options on a per-call basis regardless of the calling device used or the location of wireless or wireline access to the communications network. It is an even further object of the present invention to provide default billing preference designators.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide the communications network service subscribers with a record designating a matter and time spent on a particular incoming or outgoing call.